Announcing the 2020 Best Workplaces in Chicago

The list publication comes amid the COVID-19 crisis, which has disrupted daily life and business operations. The ranking of the Best Workplaces in Chicago is based on data collected prior to the novel coronavirus outbreak. But organizations on the list are leading the way amid the pandemic. They are taking care of their employees, their customers, and the Chicagoland community.

“The Best Workplaces in Chicago have built powerful foundations of trust and human connection to help carry their organizations through stressful and uncertain times,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “This gives companies on this list a powerful opportunity not just to do well for their people, but to do well for their businesses and for Chicago.”

Software company Okta ranked first in the category of large employers—those with 1,000 or more employees. It was followed by consulting firm Bain & Company, technology provider Snowflake Computing, auto retailer CarMax, and software firm Salesforce.

To determine the 2020 Best Workplaces in Chicago, Great Place to Work® analyzed confidential survey feedback from over 27,000 employees in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Employees responded to over 60 survey questions describing the extent to which their organization creates a Great Place to Work For All™. Eighty-five percent of the evaluation is based on what employees say about their experiences of trust and reaching their full human potential as part of their organization, no matter who they are or what they do. Great Place to Work analyzes these experiences relative to each organization’s size, workforce make up, and what’s typical in their industry and in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The remaining 15 percent of the rank is based on an assessment of all employees’ daily experiences of innovation, the company’s values, and the effectiveness of their leaders, to ensure they’re consistently experienced.

Companies with 10 to 999 people were considered for the small and medium category; companies with 1,000 employees or more were considered for the large category.

This ranking was finalized prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and does not reflect companies’ roles or responses to their people or communities in addressing the impact of the coronavirus.

About Great Place to Work

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees around the world and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Great Place to Work helps organizations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. Their unparalleled benchmark data is used to recognize Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces™ in the US and more than 60 countries, including the 100 Best Companies to Work For® and World’s Best list published annually in Fortune. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a Great Place to Work For All™.